Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

The Big Picture Blu-ray Movie Review

Hollywood: where big dreams go to die.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 5, 2015

Sometimes truth is stranger, and more interesting, than fiction. Sometimes the backlot is more interesting than the big screen. The Big Picture turns the camera around onto Hollywood for a superficially humorous but more deeply serious look at the life of a young filmmaker whose talents earn him recognition, but with that recognition comes an effort to tear down who he is and mold him into somebody else. It's a catch-22, Hollywood style, in a film where that marriage between a fictional person in a very real, and in many ways alien, world makes for fascinating bedfellows along a journey of not so much self discovery but rather self assurance. It's a film about how the industry can devour dreams, corrupt talent, and dissuade art in favor of commercialism and that magical formula between smallest budget and largest return. It's an interesting exposé disguised as a Comedy that holds up remarkably well, even now around a quarter-centtury removed from its debut.

This is a major award!

Film student Nick Chapman's (Kevin Bacon) short film has won a prestigious award that gets him noticed. He receives call after call from all the top studios and agencies looking to bring him on board and give him the moviemaking platform he's always wanted. He finally settles on working with Allen Habel (J.T. Walsh), a slick Hollywood executive who takes Chapman under his wing...and proceeds to do his damnedest to reshape him into the mold the studio envisions. Habel appears to like Chapman's idea of a love triangle movie set in snowy isolation, so long as he changes, well, everything about it. Chapman isn't a fan, of course, but it's a chance to make a movie. Just not his movie. As he wrestles with his newfound celebrity, he must come to terms with two longstanding relationships with girlfriend Susan (Emily Longstreth) and his best friend Emmet (Michael McKean) who is a budding cinematographer and the man who shot Chapman's award-winning film. He also finds himself under the spell of a sultry up-and-comer named Gretchen (Teri Hatcher).

The Big Picture boils down to this: a story of crossing invisible, social borders, the tale of an outsider invited into a world that exists in a bubble of money, manipulation, and sex where change is part of the invitation and resistance may be futile. It's not as overtly dark as it sounds, at least as it's presented here. The Big Picture doesn't tame its story, but it cloaks it with and underlying playful edge that doesn't lessen the story's core impact but does frame it in a more audience friendly and approachable manner. Underneath, however, is a very interesting and serious look inside a world that's quite different than the one most people who only watch movies ever understand, see, or even care to notice.

The movie finds unique ways to stay the course and inject some interesting perspectives into Chapman's life and take on his world. There's a steady stream of fun, but telling, bits in which his real-life circumstances essentially play out in front of his eyes as if they were a key scene from a movie, a very cheesy movie to be sure but offering a critical glimpse into his psyche that demonstrates his true passion for moviemaking. That helps to emphasize the very real conflict that exists throughout the film when the system tries to make him abandon not what he loves -- they want him to make movies -- but rather what got him there, which is a keen sense of awareness for the medium, an understanding of what drives it, and the approach he wants to take to make it successful, and has made a success before. The film effortlessly whittles down the system to its roots through the story that sees a push to sacrifice art and integrity to make something, anything, that will make money. The scenes in which Chapman and Habel go back-and-forth over their conflicting visions for Chapman's movie -- emphasis on Chapman's -- are the film's best and get right to the point of the clash that is the business side of Hollywood and the passion side of Hollywood where rarely do the two find a happy marriage.

The Big Picture Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Big Picture's Blu-ray doesn't reveal, well, the big picture thanks to an uninspired and out-of-date transfer. The image presents a moderately good foundational picture, with solid enough detailing evident on faces and clothes, but it's nowhere near as precisely refined and intimate as even second-tier catalogue releases. Image clarity satisfies, but textures are often flat and pasty. Grain retention is uneven, with spikes in places and an obvious smoothness in others. Colors aren't particularly vibrant, either, finding a bland middle ground where they hardly excel but not quite so dismally faded as to be unrecognizable. Black levels frequently push faded and purplish. Flesh tones struggle to maintain lifelike definition. Print wear and noise are commonplace. Overall, this is a passable transfer from Mill Creek that's around the quality expected given past studio performance and release pricing.

The Big Picture Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Big Picture's Blu-ray soundtrack conveys basic information, no more and no less. The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is about as minimalist as they come, presenting a center-imaged listen with zero range and only basic definition. Music is cramped up the middle and lacks all but the most simple clarity from top to bottom and plays with, obviously no surround or low end support. Ambient effects -- chatty patrons and clanking silverware at a restaurant -- present with little attention to detail or immersion beyond the raw elements. Dialogue at least comes through with decent enough definition and detail.

The Big Picture Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Big Picture contains no supplemental content.

The Big Picture Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The recent Sony e-mail hacking scandal shined a bright light on the way Hollywood works behind the scenes with drama broader in scope and much more significant than most movies will ever see. The Big Picture isn't on that scale, and it's not real, but it strives to offer a glimpse into how the system works, how movies get made, how the very real people on the lower rungs of the business are worked by those hovering around the top. The film covers its bleakness with a humor that punctuates the story and actors who are fully onboard with the film's unique approach to what is, at its core, a fairly dark story. Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of The Big Picture features mediocre video and merely passable audio. No extras are included. It's a bargain release and only the film's quality helps ease the blow of an otherwise forgettable Blu-ray. Recommended for the movie only.